Goodnight, Until Tomorrow
by myPEACEFULsanctuary
Summary: Many memories,a handful of hope and her Church is all that she has left


It was a sunny morning. Aerith was glazing out the kitchen window, watching the flowers in the garden dance in the sunshine and swaying in the tender breeze. She smiled at Elmyra, her adoptive mother, as she laid another piece of toast on to Aerith's plate.

"So Aerith, what do you plan to do today?" Elmyra asked her as she began to wash the dishes and put them away in their proper places.

"I think I go and tend the flowers. It's going get cold soon and I want to make sure the flowers are okay, Maybe I'll sell a few," she replied as she was spreading warm butter onto the toast.

"Who would have thought flowers would have grown in the Slums? Every time I look out of the window it still amazes me," Elmyra commented as she was scrubbing the pan used for last night dinner ferociously. It hadn't been long after Aerith had started to live with Elmyra that she discovered this fact.

_She was seven years old and was playing in the market area. Elmyra had generously given Aerith one or two Gil of pocket a week and added to what she sometimes found laying in the ground and with the little odd jobs she had help some neighbours with she had collected 24 Gil. All the children were excited because a strange market seller had come to the slums with exotic items. Crouching down to look at the sheet spread with goodies, Aerith noticed a small packet. It didn't have any labels or tags on it describing the contents_

"_What's that?" she asked curiously to the man. He was wearing enormous layers of dark clothing and his bulky coat almost covered the bottom of his face. _

"_Err? That will be 'em seeds," he told her before turning to take money off another boy._

"_Seeds?" _

"_Aye, I think 'em seeds grow into white and 'ellow flowers," he added, "30 Gil for the packet," Her heart fell, she was six Gil short. _

"_Sir, I've only got 24 Gil," she sadly told him. He frowned and burrowed his bushy eyebrows together. _

"_You know what, just take the packet, no one else will want 'em," he reconsidered. Her eyes lit up,_

"_Really?! Thanks!"_

"_Just remember to plant 'em in some good old soil and give them a_ _tad of water," he smiled revealing a row of pearl teeth and highlighted an age of wrinkles and crinkles in his face._

"_Yes sir!" and she took the packet and ran off to find some good old soil. She looked around but all the ground was hard and the soil she did manage to scrap off was dusty, blowing away in the wind. Even with her lack of gardening abilities, she knew there was no way a delicate seed would survive in this lifeless ground. _

_She continued wandering around until she had ended up front of a tall, proud building. She stared at the pale, broken piece of architecture and felt nervous. There were many rumours about this abandoned place of worship ranging from love stories with tragic ending to murders of the cruellest kind. Whispers told of how angry ghosts resided there and of bloody sacrifices and propitiations to pagan deities. She nearly turn away but –_

"_Have you seen a young girl with brown hair and green eyes?" It was a voice of a Turk. She turned her head and saw the Turk wearing the trademark black suit, talking to a young man nearby. Her mother had told Aerith to be careful and watch out for the Turks and members of Shinra before falling into a light doze on the train as they were running away. She didn't actually know why they had ran away but she knew it was important to her mother before she had died that they should have escaped from Shinra's grips. She waited only two seconds before quickly climbing up the steps up to the church and pulled open the door and slipped in, trying to close the door as quickly and as quietly as possible. _

_She turned and looked around the aged building for a hiding spot. There were several pews lined in columns down the great, spacious hall. There were eight or ten pillars on the far side of the pews holding the slowly breaking building up. She ran down between the pews, her footsteps on the wooden floor ringing in her ears and crouched behind the pillar to the right of the entrance at the bottom of the church. She waited there for what seemed a lifetime, listening out for the door to creak out and a hand to grab her shoulder, grasping her packet of seeds tightly. Surprising she heard many voice, talking, crying and singing that seem far away and right in her ear. After listening to the voices for little while and shook her head and crept out. _

_She saw that in front of alter there was a part of the floor that had rotted away. She kneeled down beside the patch and pulled pieces of the wood off until she saw damp earth underneath the wood. She pulled more and more of the wood away, ignoring the tiny splinters jabbing in her hands, until she had cleared a good part of the rotten wood away. She pressed her fingers into the ground and lifted them up, allowing the soil to fall between her fingers. She took her packet and torn open the top and poured the contents into her hand. She then scattered the seeds across the flower bed she had made and covered the seeds with some soil. Standing up, she looked at her hard work and then walked away and out the door to go back home._

_The next morning she raced out of bed and rushed to get ready. Elmyra had been surprised at the hurry but allowed Aerith to go. She ran through the slums, pasting friends and neighbour with only a quick hello until she reached the church. She paused outside the door, breathing heavily trying to catch her breath. When she opened the door, her feet tapped on the timber flooring as she when to her flowerbed. When she got there she almost squealed with happiness. Tiny green shoots were peeking out the ground. She danced round the flowerbed, looking at them from every angle. _

That had been the beginning of it all.

This will be my first multi-chapter fic! _So excited! _Basically I planned to write on Aerith's thoughts and feelings during the last few years in Crisis Core with many flashbacks. If you enjoyed reading this please review it because it will make me feel happy and make me write faster lol.


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